They have 43 verse one, some
precious scripture, but now. Thus sayeth the Lord that created
the old Jacob and he that formed the old Israel. Notice it's Jacob. He created
and it's Israel. He formed, he formed Israel out
of Jacob. If you go back to the first mention,
the law of first mention, that's who Israel is, is conquered Jacob,
crippled Jacob, converted Jacob. So I've created thee, O Jacob,
and formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Those statements
hardly need any explanation, do they? Verse two, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, Thou shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord, thy God, the
Holy one of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou has been honorable. And I have loved thee. Therefore,
will I give men for thee. and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. We'll stop right there. Verse four said, since thou was
precious in my sight, thou has been honorable. Was Israel always honorable? Have you and I always been honorable?
No. But he said, since thou was precious
in my sight, when did you become precious in God's sight? When he chose you in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That word precious means priceless.
priceless in my sight, and thou hast been honorable. When Satan accuses, Lord said,
you're talking about the wrong person. They've been honorable. How have we been honorable in
Christ? And I have loved thee. How could
God love the likes of you and I in Christ? That's how. But verse two, when thou passest through the
waters, we think about big ships. We think about the vast and wide
oceans deep and through the rivers, roaring,
fearful, dangerous rivers. And fire, of course, fire, a
horrible threat to humanity. We have to understand these verses
not concerning physical preservation because many of God's children
have died physically in water. And many have died physically,
passed from this life in fire. But he's making a spiritual application
here. And just to pass from here to
yon is not the issue. The blessed thing is he's with
us all the way. And I want to. Look at this thought. From verse two, just this little
line, I will be with thee. I will be with thee. And he says
it again in verse 5, Fear not, for I am with thee. So that's what we'll talk about.
I will be with thee. This is the most basic and at
the same time the most blessed truth in a believer's life, the
presence of the Lord with us. Remember the psalmist said, Psalm
23, 4, For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. In Matthew 28, 30, the Lord Jesus said, lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the world. In the same book of Isaiah
41 and 10, fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed
for I am thy God over and over and over. We read this, and here
in chapter 43 in verse 2, we read, I will be with thee. There's no if. If you don't do this or that,
I will be with you. Or if such and such don't happen
in your life, I will be with you. There's no if. To God's children, the promise
is, I will be with you. I will be with you. What a promise.
What a promise. There's never a time or a place. There's never a danger or a fear
or a trial or a trouble that the Lord is not with us. And how very needful that we
live in consciousness of that. Another place in Hebrews, he
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And there's
no if there. I'm with you. We've never been
any place at any time that he wasn't with us. And certainly
not a time that we didn't need him to be with us. Our so-called good times. are
far more dangerous to us than bad times. Because in bad times, in hard
times, you're going to plead for his presence. In good times, when you need
him just as badly, and he'll be there just the same, but you'll
ignore him all the more. As if to say, I don't need you
so bad today. I'm having a good day anyhow.
No, you're not. When all is well with us, we're
prone to forget God and have the idea I don't need much as
I did. No, no. Now in this statement, I will
be with thee. Notice the two little words here
in verse two. Will be. They're in italics. in our Bible. It's that, you
know, little different look with the letters leaning to the right. Very seldom do I temper with
the wording of the King James Version. I believe it's God's
Word for us. So many other versions change
so many words and I don't usually fuss at people about this. We
just use the old Bible that we've used for hundreds of years. don't
have a problem with it. It's God's Word. And a lot of
these modern versions, they say they change the words to make
it read easier. They don't say we don't change
the meaning, but so often it does change the meaning. Sure
does. We understand that in our Bible,
words written in italics were added by the English translators
to make it read proper English. There's some in the Old Testament
Hebrew writing and in the New Testament Greek writings that
to translate it into English, there's no verb in there. It's a sentence that don't make
sense. It's not complete. So that's
why these words are added for it to read clearly in English. So these two words are added,
will be, will be. But it really reads like this.
When thou passest through the waters, I with thee. I with thee. You're not going
without me. I with thee. Waters of danger,
waters of fear, discouragement, sorrow, trouble of any kind. I am with you. The Lord would
say to us, you might not always feel like I'm with you, but I'm
there with you. There's some characters in the
new Testament. I'm thinking of whom Christ our
Lord dealt with in their circumstances. And the blessed thought of it
is this, the Lord met with them in their situation. A lot of religious teaching will
say to you, and the devil will say to you without any teaching,
if you could change this or that, if you could straighten up here
or there, if you could just fix this, you could get to God. The trouble is you can't fix
nothing. He's the fixer. He's the fixer. So I have about
three characters I want to mention for a few minutes this morning.
That the Lord met them in their situation. He met them where
they were. Not just where they were in the
outward sense, but He met with them where they were in their
hearts. In that confused and negative
thinking And I know some people that live there where Satan has
a heyday and says, you're the lowest thing
ever walked in shoe leather. There's no hope for you. This
is where God meets his people. It's sad that the only thing
some folk know and even some preachers know about spiritual
warfare, about the conflict in the heart, But they look at it all on the
outward scene. It's just all about whether or
not you've had a flat tire lately, you know, and whether or not
God loves you. No. It's when hell is chewing
on you about all that's going on in
your world and your family and all that's going on in your
life personally. and the mistakes you've made and the problems you've had. And the devil says you'll never
lift your head again. And your trouble in your soul,
even some of you this morning about the unconcern of your own
heart, about the coldness and the numbness Concerning spiritual things. When we don't get excited about
the goodness of the Lord, we're too consumed with other stuff,
more exciting in this world. God's children struggle with
these things. First, there's a fella in Luke
chapter 10. And I'm going to turn there just
to refer to a verse or two, you may. Luke 10, it's a very familiar
story. It's called commonly the Good
Samaritan. Some people say the parable of
the Good Samaritan. Jesus didn't call it a parable.
It's actually a true story of every one of us, really. A man was very foolish. Yep,
true story of everyone else. A man was very foolish to try
and travel the dangerous road from Jerusalem down to Jericho
alone. But this fellow did. I've headed out in some pretty
difficult and dangerous country alone myself. Verse 30, a certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And it's not just
elevation that's involved in the wording here, went down. It's Adam's fall in the picture. It's our going down. But to look
at the names here, Jerusalem, you know, is the city of God's
blessing. Jericho was a city of God's cursing. He'd said one time way back after
Joshua and him went around and it fell. He said, curse it is
the man that builds it back. But they did. So from Jerusalem
down to Jericho is from blessing to cursing. That's the direction
this fellow was going. And he got beat up. He got beat
up bad. I guess he looked worse than
I do this morning. And he was left for dead in the
side ditch of the road. He's not moving. He looks dead. He's not crying for help. He
appears dead. And you know the story, along
comes a priest who by law and by God's order cannot touch a
dead body. So he's careful to switch to
the other side of the road and go on by. And then comes a Levite. He's
a priestly tribe. He can't defile himself. So he
does likewise and passes by on the other side. But then we read
that a certain Samaritan. See, Samaritans weren't under.
The laws of the priest, the Levites, the Samaritan. He had nothing
to lose or to gain by associating with anyone and no law to forbid
him. And verse 33 says when he. saw him, he had compassion on
him and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil
and wine and brought him to an end and took care of him. I want you to see this about
God's grace. There's not one word of rebuke.
or criticism spoken on the part of this Samaritan. He didn't give the fella a speech and say, listen, I'm going to
help you. But first I got to tell you something,
mister. What kind of fool are you to set out on a road like
this by yourself, trying to travel this dangerous road alone? What
were you thinking? Anybody knows better than this.
You actually deserve what's happened to you. Anybody in their right mind wouldn't
try this, but you did. Do you understand what a foolish
thing you did? I'm going to help you. I just
want to tell you all that. No, not one word. That's the grace of God. The man didn't need to be told
what a fool he was. And what a mistake he'd made,
he knew. Looks like you got yourself an awful fix. He knew that. He didn't need to be reminded
of how helpless and hopeless he is. He knows it. Actually, the Samaritan never
spoke a word till the next day at the end of the story. He just
helped the man. He never went to preaching and
prescribing. He just went to practicing. Compassion. Verse 34, don't miss that little
statement, and went to him. Went to him. I guess he got down in the ditch
physically and applied the oil and the wine, but I see more
in that little statement, went to him. He went to him. He walked right into the heart
of the man. That's what Christ does. This Samaritan was different
from anyone else that passed by. He's not there to throw rocks.
You don't have to throw rocks at a man already in the ditch,
half dead, appears to be dead. He's not there to criticize and
condemn and crush. The man is already crushed. This good Samaritan picture is
the Lord Jesus. He will meet you where you are. And he won't fuss at you for
being the fool you've been. I will be with thee. not just beside
thee, but with thee. I'll share your heart. I'll share the load of your heart.
I'll move right into the heat of the battle with you. I will
be with thee." Everybody that passes by you
in this world and analyzes you is so different from the Lord
Jesus. He's not like the others. You need to believe that. You
need to believe he cares for you when no one else does. He
don't look at you as others do. He don't think of you as others
do. People say, well, I think this or that about him or her. Well, here's what I think. Well,
here's what it looks like to me. Oh, we're so good at that. We base our whole judgment on
a thing or two we've heard or seen. And we're ready to put somebody
in hell over what they've done, where they're
at. But see this Samaritan, the Lord Jesus, he comes along. And he don't say anything audibly, but he comes to where
you are. Not just in your outward circumstance,
but where you are in your heart. He says, I know all about you.
And it dawns on you that he knows how ugly you really are. He'll remind you that everybody
else don't know much about you at all. Actually, you don't know
much about yourself. But the Lord says, I know you
through and through. I know better than you know yourself. But I'm
not here to do what they've done. I'm here to be with you. Not just pass by. Not just toss
you a dollar. till things get better. I'm here
to be with you, to help you, to lift you, to lead you. From
here on, and He brought him to an end, took care of him. Did you know there are only two
mentions of an end in the New Testament? The first one's in
the Christmas story. There's no room in the end. God sent His Son and this world
had no room for Him. Still don't. And then there's the thing here
in this text. When the world didn't have room
for Him, He came to make room for us. He'll meet you where
you are. I will be with thee. Then He'll
meet you with who you are. In John chapter 4, there's a woman of Sychar. You're familiar with the story.
A woman of Samaria. And she was what used to be referred
to as a fallen woman, putting it nicely. A fallen woman. like there's
some that's not. All Adam's race has fallen, men
and women. Here in that fourth chapter of
John, verse six said, Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore,
being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it
was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water." Before this, he'd said in verse
4, he must needs go through Samaria. I think it impossible for you
and I to really get inside this woman's head, how she thought,
what she thought. We know she's a lonely, rejected,
person feeling so worthless. She's an outcast. Traditionally,
it said that women would come together early in the morning,
not in the heat of the day, to the well. It was a woman's job
to draw the water. Y'all remember that? The woman's
job to draw the water. And they would come early before
that Eastern sun and the heat was so bad. And they'd walk along
after daylight together, just enjoying the early morning, gossiping
a little, I guess, probably about this woman. But we read that
she came by herself at noon, right in the hottest part of
the day. The others didn't want to be around
her. And the Lord is there waiting
for her. That's why he must needs go through
Samaria. This was on his agenda from eternity. And he's not there to criticize
or condemn or crush her. She's already been criticized,
condemned and crushed. He's not there to talk to her
about trying to get her life straightened out. It's not going to happen like
that. The people of Sychar don't want
her kind anywhere near them. Then why is he there? He's there to say what he said
in Isaiah. I will be with thee. And it begins in verse seven.
And these are the first words he says to the woman, give me
to drink. Give me to drink. He asked her
for a drink of water. And she says, wait a minute,
wait a minute. The very lowest among Jews. would not accept a drink of water from the most honorable among
Samaritans, let alone ask for it. So she asked him in verse
9, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which
am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, she needs to know the gift of
God. So do you, so do I. If thou knewest
the gift of God, Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. That's weighing in pretty heavy
on her. But she didn't know the last half of the verse. But the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ
is saying to her, I don't have to tell you the first part of
Romans 6.23. The wages of sin is death. She knew that. You know that.
I know that. But he said, oh, but if you knew
the last part of the verse, the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. If you knew that, if you knew
that your hope of eternal life is not dependent on your reputation, if you knew who it is talking
to you, If you knew who it is that's
asking of you, give me a drink. You'd say, no, you give me a
drink. He would have given the living water. This woman didn't
understand. She said, she said, there'd be
no point in me asking you for a drink. You don't even have
a bucket. Nothing to draw with. The well's deep. From whence hast thou that living
water? Where would you get this living
water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us this
well. He drank from it himself and
his children, his cattle. And Jesus says to her, we're
talking about two different kinds of water, lady. Verse 13, Jesus answered and
said unto her, whosoever drinketh this water shall thirst again.
You come here every day. But whosoever drinketh the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. Now her response is somewhat
like today's health and wealth gospel. She says, I'm interested. I'm interested on the basis that
I won't have to come here every day and draw water. What a relief
that would be. So she says, sir, give me this
water that I thirst, neither come hither to draw. I don't
look forward to come to this well every day. I'd be thrilled
to get rid of that job. It would suit me fine if this
were my last trip to this old well. Well, it won't be. Physically, she'll need more
water. and need to come to this well and draw as long as she
lived. But Christ is talking about quenching a spiritual thirst. That which he's created and she
don't know what to do about it. A thirst he could speak of because
he's the one that created it in her. The common invitation. Whosoever
will. does not mean whosoever of his
own ability decides. It means whosoever has a thirst
created by God's spirit and the will, the heart longing,
the urgency. That's when it works. Revelation
22, 17, and let him that is a thirst to come, let him come. That's the statement immediately
preceding, and whosoever will, let him come. I believe the scriptural meaning
is this, whosoever cannot bear for it to be any
other way, whosoever is so thirsty that
you can do no other, Then come to Christ, then you can come. It's a take it or leave it thing. Like it's presented today. Who
cares? Oh, but the Holy Spirit has come
to your heart. It's not a take it or leave it
thing. It's I've got to have him. I've got to have him. And you give yourself to him. Invitation without urgency is
damnable. And our country is full of it.
Talking people into it is not the issue. Try and talk one of God's children
out of it. See where you get. Verse 16. She said unto her, go call thy
husband and come hither. Go call your
husband and come back. He's fixing to dig in now. And she says, oh, I'm not married.
What a nice way to say it. Thinking that he don't know about
her. I don't have a husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband. I know you're not married, but here's what else I do know
about you. Thou hast had five husbands,
and whom thou now hast is not thy husband. You're right, you're not married,
but you've had five, and the one you're living with now is
not your husband. And I guess she goes to counting
on her fingers. She's probably forgot about some of them. My soul, he's right. I have been
married five times. And of course the one I'm with
now, I'm not married to. He's right. And verse 19, the woman said
to him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Wow. You
couldn't have known this any other way. except God told you. She didn't
know he was God. She said, I perceive, I sense
that you're a prophet. Now in verse 20, refers back
to her being a Samaritan and him being a Jew. Our fathers
worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem
is a place where men ought to worship. She's trying to control the conversation.
You're trying to get it off of her marital status. Talk about
worship, but she's playing right into what he wants to tell her.
He's about to tell her that worship is not about a place, but a person. Worship is in the heart. Jesus
saith unto her, woman, believe me. The hour cometh when neither
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem you worship the Father. You worship
you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a
spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. She don't get it. She don't know
what to say, but she has to say something. So she says in verse
25, I know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When
he has come, he will tell us all things. He will make it clear.
It's then that Jesus says. Sister, you're looking at him.
Verse 26, Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, am he. She stands speechless. And about
that time, the 12 returned from town, been to get groceries.
And, uh, it's time for her to hit the
road, get out of there. She didn't even think to get her water bucket. Verse 28, the woman then left
her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the
men, come see a man. She was so excited, so full of
life. One preacher said she left her
bucket and ran off with the well. Ran into town and started telling
people, come see a man. Imagine how that went over with
the men around town. That's all she's ever been interested
in is seeing a man. But that wasn't the end of the
statement. Come see a man which told me all things that
ever I did is not this the Christ. This is not a hope she found
of herself. This is certainly not a hope that the people gave
her. But Christ had come to where
she was and he came to who she was. I will be with thee. Then they
went out of the city and came unto him. She knew something
had happened. Some of them knew something had
happened in her heart. They were familiar, they were
all familiar with her defeated Hopeless countenance. But it
was different. So different after meeting the
Lord Jesus that they went out of the city and came to him.
In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him saying, Master, eat.
He said unto them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. And he wasn't talking about baloney
or even steak. This is my meat. My meat is to
do the will of Him that sent me." And that's what he was doing. So, Christ came to the man beaten
and left for dead, not to criticize, condemn, and crush. He came to
him where he was. He came to this woman, not to
criticize, condemn, or crush. He came to her and dealt with
her graciously for who she was. Thirdly, I'm Harry and I will
be with thee whatever you are. It takes a very deceived person
indeed, who is not ashamed of what we are. There is in the corrupt nature
of every one of us, the capability of being every bit as low down
as any person on earth. And but for the grace of God,
you would be and I would be. It's him that made the difference.
Simon Peter, of all people, really thought that he was a little
better a little stronger than the rest of the twelve. The Lord
Jesus had said to him, I'm going to be killed and you're going to scatter and
forsake me and leave me alone. None of them said a word except
Simon Peter. And he interrupts and says, now
wait a minute, Lord. All these other guys might forsake
you. This is a nice way of him saying, I'm not like them. All
these other guys might forsake you. It won't surprise me a bit.
But that's not me. I'll go with you into prison
and even to death. I won't deny you. And the Lord
Jesus, I believe, without even raising His voice, turned His
Simon Peter very calmly said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall
not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou
knowest me. Not just once will you say, I
don't know him, but you'll do it three times. You will forsake me. But I won't forsake you. You think in the strength of
your flesh you're stronger than what you really are. But I know what you really are.
And I know exactly what you'll do. And yet I will be with thee in
what you are. You won't be with me But I'll
be with you." And Peter did fail in his flesh. But the Lord went
on to tell him there, I've prayed for thee. Not that your flesh won't fail.
He didn't say, buddy, that's it. Now that's the spirit. I'm
going to pray that you won't. No, he didn't do that. He said,
you don't got it in here, buddy. You're going to fail. You're
going to deny me three times. But he said, here's what I've prayed.
that thy faith fail not. And it didn't. It didn't. And
all it took was a look from the Lord. And Peter went out and
wept bitterly. I will be with thee in whatever
you are. Don't you imagine David at night
taking care of the sheep with the wolves howling, having fight
a lion and a bear with his bare hands. Don't you know he was
so thankful and conscious that the Lord had said, I will
be with thee. Daniel in the lion's den. He could sleep, not because the
lions weren't there, they were. But he could sleep because the
Lord was there. I will be with thee. The Apostle Paul in a cold
dungeon. The same man, Peter, in Acts
12. Herod's going to put him to death
in the morning. He said, I don't believe I could
have slept a wink, me either. But Peter laid down and slept.
This is after Pentecost. Holy Ghost is living in him.
I will be with thee. The Lord's there. He laid down
and slept. And when the angel of the Lord
come in there, unlocked all the doors, opened the doors, he had
to come over and kick Peter in the side. He didn't say kicked
him, he said he smote him in the side. Might have elbowed
him. Smote him in the side to wake him up, he was sleeping
so sound. I want to tell you, if we believe
God much at all, we wouldn't have to have no tranquilizers.
Huh? I guess it's about time to go.
I will be with thee. That's the message. Let's stand
together. He'll be with you. He has been with you. He will
not leave nor forsake you. Bless his holy name, the Lord's
presence with us. Amen.